5 Best Elk Hunting Tips For Beginners Hunters In 2022

Hunting can be exciting, especially for beginners. If you’re a beginner and have been hunting small games like goats, it might get overwhelming for you to go for elks. Hunting elks doesn’t seem a big deal for a beginner until he tries it out for the first time. Most of the time, the huge size of the elks makes the beginners more confident. However, little do they know that hunting an elk down can be a super challenging job, even if they’re hunting for quite a while. 

Finding an elk in the first place and hunting it down requires some specific skills, tricks, and chemistry to hunt this animal. Adopting these tricks and acquiring the skills takes time and effort, and mostly the practice of patience. Stick to the article to know the elk hunting tips for beginners if you’re planning your elk hunting career: 

Are Elks Hard To Hunt?

Let’s face it, hunting goats and elks are not the same; there are distinct differences between them. Hunting an elk will be much harder and will get you through the toughest situations of your life while chasing one. You may have to camp in a tent thousands of feet above the ground or in the deep wild, which is much harder than regular hunting. There are enough predators to put you in danger when you’re chasing an elk in the woods. 

Despite the hardship and the tool on your body and mind while hunting an elk, it’s worth the hassle when you can put an elk down. It will be much harder than you may imagine initially, as you have to learn about all the slopes in the journey. Once you start to understand how the process works, how you approach, track, chase, and hunt, it will get easier and more interesting. 

Elk Hunting Tips For Beginners

Hunting elks can be a daunting job for beginners because it takes far more skills, patience, and tricks. Here are the elk hunting tips for beginners that can easily start with your big game with less hassle: 

Fitness and stamina are the key things

Elk hunting gets much harder because they usually live in the mountain regions where you have to hike a lot. Climbing the mountains will become a regular job if you’re after elk hunting because they are super hard to find. Most of the time, you’ll go blind for elk hunting and keep climbing mountains without even chasing one. If you even find an elk, it could be 300-400 yards away but on another mountain. So, the point is that it will become hard to hunt elks properly if you don’t have the fitness and the stamina it takes to climb mountains. 

Pack the right hunting gear

Hunting can require a lot of gear to land a proper shot or track properly. However, after knowing that, beginners tend to pack every gear they can in their backpack and start falling in. When you’re hunting elks, you have to climb mountains, and it’s crucial to get as lightweight as possible. Keeping the backpack clear will help you in two ways: it helps climb the mountain, and a clear bag is needed for the hunt. The essential thing you’ll pack before heading out for an elk hunt are: 

A rain jacket, A sharp knife, a packable sleeping bag, a pair of binoculars with a tripod, a long parachute cord, latex gloves, cow calls, and your license papers. Make sure the papers and the tags are dry in an airtight pack, and the knife is secure with bubble wrap and your backpack.

An experienced partner is a must 

There is a lot to know from the field in elk hunting that you cannot understand from books or training. If you’re going for your first elk hunting, make a plan to go out with an experienced elk hunter. His successful hunts’ experiences in his journey will guide you through the hard process that can help you on the spot. When you have to face a tough situation while hunting for your first elk, he’ll help you with his experience. Some problems will be so tricky that you won’t even understand your next step, especially while tracking or scouting. The learnings from the first day with an experienced hunter will be far more than weeks of hunting alone. 

Scout for your first hunt

Elks have a definitive pattern of walking, feeding, and sleeping; usually, it’s between the south and the north. If you want a successful hunt from your first adventure, you must learn to scout for elks and know how they move. They usually search for food at the southern ridges and head for the northern woods, resting in the dark. You can find maps where the elks usually move along; the maps will help you understand the movement’s nature. A pair of good binoculars also can help you scout for the best leads of the elks around you if you’re on high ground. You can follow their droppings and footprints to know how they have traveled and how many of them were there.

Choose your hunter bow or rifle wisely

Hunting an elk isn’t as easy as hunting a rabbit or goat; it’s much bigger and harder to put an elk down. You must use a good bow or a gun to hunt the elk; no other tools or hunters would do the job. If you’re choosing a rifle, make sure it’s a bolt action rifle with both finger and palm action. If it’s a bow that you’re choosing for hunting elks, you should be aware of the power of the bow and get enough of it to put the elk down. A bow that weighs between 400 to 500 grains can do a great job at hunting elks. Experts also suggest that you can also use a stiff arrow to land a shot with great penetration. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are the most frequently asked questions about hunting elks that you might find interesting, especially if you’re a beginner in the game. 

Final Thought

Elk hunting is the big game that every beginner hunter dreams about. If you’re also a beginner at hunting and have a goal to have your legacy at hunting, you’ll surely be running after an elk someday. It’s quite amazing to run after an elk in the wild and fight against the rough nature around to land a perfect shot on the hunt. 

Following the elk hunting tips for beginners and having an experienced hunter as your partner or guide will help you master the new hunt. Once you can confront the rough environment, track the elks, and put it down, you’ll find the true feeling of holding the horns of your first hunt.